Tomorrow’s identity for premium tea brand Usai is steeped in dualities and reverence for craft

Usai is a New Zealand-based premium brand of loose-leaf tea that connects consumers to the rich history, rituals, and cultures associated with the beverage. To bring it to life, the founders of the tea label collaborated with neighbouring New Zealand-based creative studio Tomorrow to craft the brand world from scratch, including the strategy, story, name and packaging. Driven by curiosity, the final aesthetic is premium and highly considered, designed to appeal to a target audience who are widely travelled, adventurous, and inspired by discovery. “As we researched the tea market and the origins of tea, we discovered traditions and legends dating back centuries, and a whole culture and craft we never knew existed. The more we learnt, the more curious we became, and this curiosity aligned with the target market our client had identified,” Co-Founder & Strategy Director Ben Crawford explains. The research revealed that the world of tea is full of opposing forces – an idea that turned into a conceptual strand. Today, centuries-old tea traditions are enjoyed in modern environments; the beverage originated in the East but is widely exported to the West. “And in particular, we were interested in the role light and shade play in creating the unique characteristics of each tea variety,” adds Crawford. The team at Tomorrow decided to take notes from this sense of duality, felt first and foremost in the colour palette.